Report: Suns’ interviews for coaching vacancy include Nurse, Rivers

Four of the Phoenix Suns’ candidates for their head coaching vacancy include Jordi Fernandez, Nick Nurse, Doc Rivers and Kevin Young, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

In addition, The Athletic’s Shams Charania noted Frank Vogel as a fifth coach who will be interviewed for the job. Charania reports all five will meet with owner Mat Ishbia, general manager James Jones and other team officials in Michigan this week.

Nurse, Rivers and Vogel are the three names with prior head coaching experience in the NBA. All of them were let go by their former teams, while Fernandez and Young are currently lead assistants.

Nurse was the head coach of the Toronto Raptors from 2018-23 and was fired in late April. He led them to a championship in 2019, his first stint as a NBA head coach.

Rivers’ fourth head coaching gig in the league came for three seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers. They were eliminated in the second round of this postseason and Rivers was dismissed. He won a title leading the Boston Celtics in 2008.

Vogel has been out of coaching since the Los Angeles Lakers axed him at the end of last season, two years after his first season with the Lakers resulted in a championship. He spent six seasons as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 2010-16 before two years in Orlando coaching the Magic.

Fernandez is the associate head coach for the Sacramento Kings, a position he received coming into this season after spending the last six years as an assistant with the Denver Nuggets.

The Suns’ associate head coach is Young. His start in the NBA coaching was for the Philadelphia 76ers from 2017-20 before he came to Phoenix to work under Monty Williams the following year.

Williams was fired after the Suns were bounced in the second round of the playoffs for the second consecutive year. His record across four seasons was 194-115.

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